The capsule, developed with the help of government contracts, is an important part of keeping the space station running.

In the case of the Mercury space capsule, however, the patent came closer to the end. Project Mercury was conceived as a NASA programme to put the first American astronauts in space. Named after a ...

In between, nothing on the Mercury capsule would allow him to perform the simplest of pilot acts: alter his flight path. Sure, he could turn, pitch, and roll this way and that. He could see where ...

On Jan. 9, 1959, NASA selected the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation to develop the Mercury spacecraft, which would later carry the first American astronauts into space, Alan Shepard and Virgil ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (WHTM) — On Feb. 20, 1962, John Herschel Glenn Jr. climbed into the cramped confines of a Mercury space capsule, to become the third American in space, and the first to ...